Interactions between Lexical Access and Articulation

This study investigates the interaction of lexical access and articulation in spoken word production, examining two dimensions along which theories vary. First, does articulatory variation reflect a fixed plan, or do lexical access-articulatory interactions continue after response initiation? Second, to what extent are interactive mechanisms hard-wired properties of the production system, as opposed to flexible? In two picture-naming experiments and one spoken semantic classification experiment, we used semantic neighbor manipulations to induce lexical and conceptual co-activation. Our results provide evidence for multiple sources of interaction, both before and after response initiation. While interactive effects can vary across participants, we do not find strong evidence of variation of effects within individuals, suggesting that these interactions are relatively fixed features of the production system.